And Order Unkind
by StarWarrior72
Summary: This is a sequel to Fate Has Been Cruel. This takes place after an ROTJ that happens pretty similarly to in the OT, with the notable changes that Anakin doesn't die, because he doesn't ACTUALLY need his suit anymore and that Luke's exhaustion caused by the Force lightning actually got him hospitalized for more than the 5 hours I think they managed in Truce At Bakura.


Anakin cast a glance at his guard. He had to admit that he resented having them with him. It was a long time since he had not been trusted by authorities. Now, thanks to his little troublemaker of a son, this was going to be his new reality. And he was immensely proud and thankful to his son for that. The boy understood his actions as having saved Anakin from the Dark Side, but to Anakin, the lengths his son had gone to meant far more. Luke had saved him from his lifelong fear of slavery.

Even if he was now being held more tightly than Palpatine had ever seemed to.

His guard stopped outside a door, and motioned him inside, casting glares his way, clearly telling him not to dare to harm Luke. If only they knew how unlikely he was to do that.

He stepped in, glad that his guard was staying outside. His son's bed was tilted up, and he was leaned against it, lost in a stupor. Anakin smiled, and walked nearer. Luke didn't seem to be aware of his presence, but Anakin imagined that the reason he was sitting when he clearly needed the sleep must have been to greet his father.

Anakin ignored the old, worn chairs that sat by the bed, opting instead to sit down next to his son. At that, Luke shuffled closer and he cradled the tired young man. He hadn't seen Luke since Endor, and his son's appearance was both concerning and comforting. Luke didn't look too battered, save some bruises and small scratches from his tumble down the collapsed catwalk, but he was still so tired, and that worried Anakin.

Luke shuffled sleepily, and Anakin gently caressed his son's cheek and the boy drifted away from consciousness once more, comforted. Anakin smiled down at the sleeping form, wondering how many times his mother, and Obi-Wan had watched over _him_ in this way. Was this how his son had looked at him, waiting for him to wake up, on his visit?

Luke rolled closer to Anakin, grasping his father's tunic in his sleep. Anakin nestled him closer, and Luke gave a tired, but comfortable, yawn. As he finished his yawn, his eyes drifted open, and he blinked in confusion at the chest he was snuggled against. He looked up into his father's face and sprang away.

"I don't look that bad anymore," Anakin teased, whacking his son gently, "You healed me, remember?"

"I'm sorry I fell asleep," Luke said hastily, "I meant to be awake when you came in."

"It's all right," Anakin answered, "I'm not getting a royal greeting from the rest of the galaxy, and you certainly don't need to."

Luke smiled, and hugged his father tightly. Anakin returned the gesture, before putting his son back in the center of the bed, where Luke snuggled up. They sat together for a moment before Luke spoke, "Speaking of royal, have you talked to Leia?"

Anakin shuffled awkwardly. He knew Luke wouldn't be entirely satisfied with his one encounter with his daughter, and he didn't particularly want to let Luke down on any encounter he might have imagined, "Yes."

"And?" Luke asked, "What did she say?"

"Only that you'd told her how we're related."

"She accepts it?" Luke asked excitedly, "I haven't been able to convince her yet. Did she come down earlier this morning?"

"Not exactly," Anakin said.

Luke sighed, frustrated, "Why won't she accept you?" he asked, "I have, and you haven't done anything dreadful to me because of it."

Anakin smiled, "I think she may be more preoccupied with the past, Luke. I understand that she can't trust me. Put in her situation, I wouldn't trust me either."

Luke sighed again, and Anakin reached out and hugged him tightly. Luke submitted, hugging him in return. Anakin remembered the last time they had hugged one another, months ago when it was he in hospital. Luke had been so brave to come to see him, and he had nearly been rewarded for his lack of fear by being captured. He had never in his life been so glad that someone had listened to him as he had been when Luke had folded his body up in the cabinet under his bed.

He looked down at Luke again, and saw that his son had rested his head tiredly against the bed again, and seemed to be drifting back off. Part of Anakin wanted to demand that Luke stay awake and continue to talk to him, but he knew better. Luke needed his sleep, now more than ever, and Anakin refused to be an impediment to that pure, simple need.

He distracted himself instead by looking around the room. Part of him was stunned and horrified at the state the room was in, because it was such a disaster zone, but he remembered now that conditions like that meant, more likely than not, that Luke had had a number of visitors, and that not all of them had politely cleaned up after themselves. He spotted a cup of beer that he assumed was Han's, and some scattered papers that he could only assume were part of the sheaf of political documents that his daughter apparently eternally carried. Besides those signature spots of mess, Luke's room was overflowing with candy and food wrappers, get well soon cards, and the Force's memories of his many visitors.

Anakin nodded to himself, he may have once been angry that Luke refused to come home, but he understood it better now. Luke's friends were a perfect family for the boy, in all his enthusiasm and friendliness. Anakin rested Luke back into his bed, lowering it again for his son. He stood, and walked over to the window, looking out on the grounds, which were populated by trees, benches, paths, and families. The view from his own window was not quite as pleasant. He spotted Leia suddenly, and smiled to see that she had released her constantly present papers and was eating from a picnic basket, sitting next to Han and Chewbacca. Anakin assumed that they would be coming up to visit Luke next.

"Father?" Luke's voice asked suddenly. Vader spun around, surprised, and saw that Luke was sitting up again, "What are you looking at?"

"Your sister," Anakin answered honestly, returning to Luke's bed.

"Oh, what's she doing?" Luke asked.

"Waiting to come up and see you, I'd guess."

Luke immediately started to crawl out of bed, and Anakin lifted him carefully, and carried him back to the window to surprisingly little complaint, "She's down there, see?"

Luke nodded, "She looks happy. But I thought she got shot during the battle, shouldn't she be in hospital too?"

"It was healed very quickly, hardly a wound at all really."

"I was hardly hurt," Luke said, "Why am I still in hospital?"

"Have you forgotten that you just let me carry you here? You're too tired to be out and about. I warned them that this might happen, but it's obvious enough. You just need to sleep it off, and you'll be out of here before you know it."

Luke nodded, "Alright. Can you take me back to bed now?"

Anakin gathered him up from where he'd rested him on the radiator. He set his son back in his bed, and Luke pulled the blankets back up around himself, "I was better before all of Rouge Squadron decided to come visit me yesterday."

Anakin smiled, "That's your X-wing flight group, isn't it?"

Luke nodded proudly, "I was one of the first members. They're great fliers, and I love them all to pieces, but I think they forget that humans need _sleep_."

"Aren't any of them human?" Anakin asked, confused. He could have sworn that Wedge Antilles, who had been the one to come down to tell him that he could visit his son, had been one of them.

Luke laughed, and Anakin was very glad to hear it, "Of course some of them are human. That's what makes it so miraculous! They've driven me out of their room with their noise so many times the Alliance has stopped bothering to assign me a bed, and I just stay on the _Falcon_ with Han."

Vader smiled again, "I hope when they release me we'll be able to find a home where we can stay. Your friends are welcome too, and of course, your sister."

Luke grinned, sitting up and then leaning towards his father, "I can't wait. It won't be too long, I promise. They can't really afford to keep you in prison for very long, and they'll almost definitely insist that you stay with someone they trust to be able to pull you back from the Dark Side if they need to."

Anakin raised an eyebrow, "You?"

"Of course," Luke said happily, "And then we can restart the Jedi Order. Do you know where we should start looking for Force sensitives?"

"Dathomir," Anakin answered without thinking, "But I think you should give yourself a break before we start trying to do that. I have a lot to teach you about being a Jedi."

"Really?" Luke demanded curiously, "Like what?"

Anakin nervously reached into his tool belt and pulled out a handful of parts, "You said you'd be interested in learning to improve your lightsaber, for a start."

Luke nodded, "Yes," he took his weapon from his bedside table, and passed it to Anakin.

Anakin scattered his handful of pieces across the blankets, and reached into his belt for more, as well as his tools. Then he crossed his legs on the blankets and began to instruct Luke on a number of minor changes to improve his lightsaber. When he had completed those, and Luke still seemed to have enthusiasm to spare, he taught Luke to waterproof his weapon. By the time Luke's lightsaber had been reassembled and the remaining parts and tools had been returned to Anakin's belt, the sun had gone, the light filtering in through the window a pale purple.

Luke put his lightsaber back on his bedside table and stretched, yawning tiredly, "Thanks. I didn't even know lightsabers could be made so they wouldn't work underwater."

"It's a lesson Obi-Wan learned by accident a couple of times. It was my only opportunity to turn back his teasing about caring for my lightsaber."

"Your lightsaber seemed like it was in fine condition to me," Luke said.

Anakin snorted, "That's because I built that one about a week before I turned. The one I had before it was eaten."

"Eaten?" Luke asked incredulously.

"Yes, along with part of my hand."

Luke flinched, "Sorry to hear that."

"Don't be, it was the prosthetic. I hardly even felt it."

"No way," Luke said, "What ate them?"

"I forget what they're called. One of the larger monsters."

Luke grinned, stretching before curling up again. Anakin stood and carefully pulled the blankets up around his son again. Luke accepted them thankfully, pulling them up around himself properly, and Anakin sat down again. His son yawned hugely and leaned back.

"I guess I'm not going to be seeing Leia today," he said sleepily.

"I'm sure they went home hours ago," Anakin said, "They'll be back to see you tomorrow."

Luke nodded. Anakin lowered the hospital bed for his son, who was dozing off again.

"Would you like me to try to get clearance to come again tomorrow?"

"Of course," Luke answered, "But before you go, could you help me a little bit?"

"With what?" Anakin asked, sitting down next to him, smiling as Luke shifted to put his head on his father's knee.

"Could you just help me with my knees? I skinned them both, and it tends to make it hard to sleep."

"I told you, the Dark Side does not agree with healing. I would only hurt you," Anakin answered.

"You're not dark anymore," Luke said, "I trust you. Please?"

Anakin looked down at his son doubtfully. The last thing he wanted to do was potentially harm his son in the long term, to heal something as trivial as skinned knees. He wasn't sure he'd stopped using the Dark Side completely yet, having long since blurred the line almost to oblivion. But Luke trusted him. Luke trusted him, and was only asking to have a few scrapes healed. Gritting his teeth, he pulled the blankets away from his son's legs, pulling up his pant legs to reveal what looked like considerably more than merely 'skinned' knees.

He looked down at his son again. Luke was starting to drift off in his arms. He shivered. Luke's tiredness frightened him, and he wished he could heal that instead, but that wasn't a possibility. _Heal his knees,_ he told himself,_ You love him enough to keep the Dark Side away for this one, little, task._

He carefully laid his hand over his son's tattered joint, and began to heal it. It was a very strange sight, the boy's skin folding itself back together and joining as though there was nothing odd or unnatural about it. He took his hand away from the left knee and moved over to the other. As the right knee resealed itself, Anakin found himself smiling. It had been so long since he had done someone a service like that. Yet, healing Luke had been so easy, he wondered if Luke had not been suggesting the impossible after all when he'd asked if Anakin wanted help with his amputated limbs. He found himself looking at Luke's prosthetic.

Luke shook his head, "Don't. You saw what happened when I overdid it on healing _you_."

"But that was my fault. I don't want you hurt!"

Luke laughed, "That's what I said about your shoulder. You still made me stop. Can I heal that now? You can try with my arm later."

Anakin gave in, lifting his son up and guiding his hand onto the wounded shoulder. Luke closed his eyes again and Anakin felt the comfort that Luke's healing efforts were always accompanied by. He smiled at his son, closing his own eyes and relaxing, the better to help Luke. All too soon, Luke had finished, and his hand was gone from Anakin's shoulder.

"Talk about help sleeping," Luke sighed, his young body going limp in Anakin's arms as he fell asleep.

Anakin carefully pulled back the blankets again, tucking his son back in, and feeling a wonderful warmth at the sight of Luke's no-longer skinned knees. He had helped his son. Tangibly. And Luke had, of course, returned the favour, he had expected no less.

Luke was completely unconscious. Anakin propped him up on a pillow, made sure the blankets were wrapped around his son completely, and returned to his guard at the door. As they returned to the basements where the cells were, Anakin didn't mind them, nor did he mind the nearly unfurnished room that they had assigned him. He had a wonderful feeling that his help with Luke's knees might help Luke to convince Leia to accept him, and he looked forward to his attempt to heal Luke's arm.


End file.
